news
  • ongoing
    exhibition

    MAK Design Lab at the Museum of applied Arts in Vienna. Within the permanent Design exhibition one can find a few of our projects like 'the idea of a tree', 'limited moths' or 'LeveL.

    MAK Design Lab

  • 15.September 2023 - 21. July 2024
    exhibition

    HEIMATEN. An exhibition and survey and an attempt to break with conventional takes on Heimat. the exhibition was shown at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G) in 2022. Our specially commissioned piece 'riparian cloud' is now also on show in Molfsee.

    Freilichtmuseum Molfsee

  • 15.3.2024 – 13.10.2024
    exhibition, new project

    "Water Pressure - Designing for the future" an exhibition of the MK&G Hamburg and Jane Withers Studio – looks at the water crisis from a global perspective. We were commissioned to come up with an installation celebrating water. The result "vital rain" is part of the exhibition and will stay permanently in the museums yard.
    more soon

    MKG Hamburg - Water Pressure

day by day – rug

visualizing human labour and working time
within a product

  • year 2014 / 2015

  • categories Processes / Machines & Their unique Results
    Products & Furniture

  • for

    Nodus

day-by-day rug for Nodus is a system for hand knotted rugs which is designed to visualize human labour and the working time of one, respectively, two carpet makers to produce one carpet. The resulting rugs are always unique pieces, since the pattern incorporates the working rhythm of the makers into the final design.
Depending on the size and ‘resolution’ of a carpet, it takes several weeks up to several months to produce a hand-knotted rug. This amount of labour is often underestimated and unnoticed. day by day-rug makes this labour visible and values it by incorporating it into the design.
A polygon shaped carpet is using a cell structure pattern as a basic grid which is filled day by day with a pair of colours. Every working-day, the worker is using two different colours to fill the pattern. This generates a coloured stripe, – an abstract record of one working day. Day by day the carpet fills up with more stripes for each day. Some stripes will be thinner and some will be thicker, depending on the rug’s shape, the working hours, and also the daily condition of the worker – a working diary, manifested in the rug. Each working day is translated into the pattern of the rug and by doing so, each piece becomes as unique as its maker while at the same time unveiling the exact amount of working days per carpet. To underline this, the carpet carries a label with the name, age and gender of the worker(s) and the start and finishing date.
day by day-rug is a production method which can be applied to nearly any size. The rugs are made from naturally dyed wool and are hand knotted in Nepal. So far there is a green and a red version.

main image: Nodus rugs

small green rug - each 'colour stripe' marks one day of production for one maker

big red rug - each 'colour stripe' marks one day of production for two makers

the cell structure is slightly higher than the stripes

Depending on the size and knot-density of a carpet, it takes several weeks up to several months to produce a hand-knotted rug.

small green rug - each subtle colour stripe marks one day of production for one maker

each finished rug carries a label telling who made it and when

The polygon shaped carpet
is using a cell structure pattern as a basic grid which is filled day by day with a pair of colours.

 

black and white blueprint and designated colours as template / instructions for the makers

choosing the colours for the red carpet | spring 2014

  • material

    naturally dyed wool, leather-label

  • dimensions

    various sizes possible
    small/ green rug: 120 x 230 cm
    big/ red rug: 280 x 330 cm

  • production process

    hand-knotted in Nepal

  • produced by

  • collection

    the rug is part of the permanent collection of the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York